Testimony in Debts
Ibn al-Qayyim explains that the verse on testimony in debts, “If there are not two men, then one man and two women” (al-Baqara: 282), though revealed in the context of debts, by qiyās includes other financial cases such as inheritance, trusts, and usurped property.
The consensus was also reached on two daughters inheriting two thirds by analogy with the ruling of two sisters. The verse about one in hardship with ribā, “If he is in hardship, then allow him time until ease” (al-Baqara: 280), was extended by qiyās to every debtor in difficulty with lawful debts. Similarly, the male inheriting twice the share of the female was extended by analogy to cases beyond the explicit text.
Examples of Qiyās in Rulings
Ibn al-Qayyim lists further examples:
- Qiyās of dhihār with the daughter upon dhihār with the mother.
- Qiyās of freeing a slave in expiation for dhihār upon freeing a slave in expiation for killing.
- Qiyās of prohibiting combining two female slaves in concubinage upon the prohibition of combining two sisters in marriage.
He notes that explaining all such cases would make the book very long. Some of these cases had dispute, while others were agreed upon among the Salaf.
Attempts of Those Who Denied Qiyās
Those who denied qiyās attempted to interpret many issues into general wordings of the Qurʾān to avoid analogy. For example, they interpreted al-muḥṣanāt (chaste women) as private parts to extend the verse on accusing women to men, or extended mukallibīn from dogs to all hunting animals.
Ibn al-Qayyim shows that even if some interpretations work, in many cases they cannot avoid qiyās and are forced into it, otherwise they end up saying things no one before them said.
Practical Examples Where Qiyās is Unavoidable
- The hadith on the mouse in clarified butter was never restricted to butter alone, but extended by qiyās to oil and other liquids, and not limited to mice but also cats.
- The prohibition of exchanging fresh dates for dried was extended to grapes for raisins.
- The ruling of a thrice-divorced woman returning to her first husband after marrying another was extended to other forms of separation like khulʿ, annulment, or death, by qiyās.
- The prohibition of vessels of gold and silver was extended beyond eating and drinking to all uses, by analogy.
- The clothing prohibited for the muḥrim was extended to all garments and coverings with the same ʿillah.
- The use of three stones for cleaning oneself was extended to any material that achieves cleanliness better, like cloth or cotton.
- The prohibition of selling over another’s sale or proposing over his proposal was extended to leasing, because the same corruption exists.
Tayammum and Minor Impurities
Allah said regarding tayammum: “If you are ill or on a journey, or one of you comes from relieving himself, or you have touched women, and you cannot find water, then do tayammum with clean earth” (al-Māʾida: 6). The scholars extended this by qiyās to all forms of minor impurity, nocturnal emission, and cases of hardship such as inability to afford water or fear of illness from using cold water.
Pledges
The verse on pledges during travel, “If you are on a journey and cannot find a scribe, then a pledge in hand” (al-Baqara: 283), was extended by qiyās to pledges in residence and with the presence of a scribe, based on the Prophet ﷺ pledging his armour in Madina.
Qiyās of the Companions
Ibn al-Qayyim highlights many rulings of the Companions رضي الله عنها that were based on qiyās:
- ʿUmar’s analogy of the prohibition of fat for the Jews to the prohibition of wine for Muslims.
- Companions giving the slave half the rulings of the free person in marriage, divorce, and waiting period by qiyās upon the verse of half punishment.
- Leadership of Abū Bakr in khilāfa by analogy to his leadership in ṣalāh.
- Writing and compiling the muṣḥaf.
- ʿUmar adding the ḥadd of drinking to the ḥadd of slander.
- ʿUthmān giving inheritance to a thrice-divorced woman in the illness of death.
- Ibn ʿAbbās extending the prohibition of selling food before possession to other items.
- ʿUmar and Zayd applying qiyās in inheritance for the mother’s share in cases with a spouse.
- The principle of ʿawl (proportional reduction) in inheritance by analogy to dividing debts of a bankrupt.
Conclusion
Ibn al-Qayyim’s point is that qiyās is not an invention but a constant method used by the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, and the Companions. Denying qiyās leads to contradictions or interpretations no scholar before ever accepted. The practice of the Salaf proves that qiyās is necessary and unavoidable in understanding and applying the rulings of Sharīʿah.
Translation: He said regarding testimony in debts:
فَإِن لَّمْ يَكُونَا رَجُلَيْنِ فَرَجُلٌ وَامْرَأَتَانِ مِمَّن تَرْضَوْنَ مِنَ الشُّهَدَاء
“If there are not two men, then one man and two women from those whom you accept as witnesses” (al-Baqara: 282).
So it enters under the meaning of the verse:
إِذَا تَدَايَنتُم بِدَيْنٍ إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى
“When you contract a debt for a fixed term” (al-Baqara: 282),
by way of qiyās (analogy), to include inheritance, trusts, usurped property, and other forms of wealth.
They reached consensus on the inheritance of two daughters receiving two thirds by qiyās upon the ruling of two sisters. And He said about one in hardship with what remains on him of ribā:
وَإِن كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَى مَيْسَرَةٍ
“If he is in hardship, then allow him time until ease” (al-Baqara: 280).
This includes every debtor who is in hardship with a lawful debt, and this is affirmed by qiyās.
From this also is that the male inherits twice the share of the female when alone, even though the text came in the case of them being together, where Allah said:
يُوصِيكُمُ اللَّهُ فِي أَوْلَادِكُمْ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ
“Allah instructs you concerning your children, for the male is the like of the share of two females” (al-Nisāʾ: 11).
And He said:
وَإِن كَانُوا إِخْوَةً رِجَالًا وَنِسَاءً فَلِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ
“If there are brothers, both men and women, then for the male is the share of two females” (al-Nisāʾ: 176).
Also from this is qiyās of ẓihār (likening one’s wife to one’s mother in prohibition) with one’s daughter upon ẓihār with the mother, and qiyās of freeing a slave in expiation for ẓihār upon freeing a slave in expiation for killing, with the condition of faith.
And qiyās of the prohibition of combining two sisters or other close relatives from the female slaves, upon the prohibition of combining them from free women in marriage in the matter of concubinage.
He said: if we were to detail all this, it would make the book very long.
I said: some of these issues have dispute, and some of them are not known to have any dispute among the salaf.
Some who deny qiyās attempted to enter these issues, which are agreed upon, into the generalities of wordings. So they included accusing men under the verse of accusing chaste women, and made al-muḥṣanāt a description for private parts and not for women. And they included all hunting animals under His saying:
وَمَا عَلَّمْتُم مِّنَ الْجَوَارِحِ
“Also what is caught by your hunting animals and birds of prey” (al-Māʾida: 4),
and His saying:
مُكَلِّبِينَ
“Those who train (hunt to kill)” (al-Māʾida: 4).
Although it comes from the word kalb (dog), its meaning is those who incite them upon the hunt. This was said by Mujāhid (d. 104 AH) and al-Ḥasan (d. 110 AH), and it is narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68 AH).
Abū Sulaymān al-Dimashqī said: “mukallibīn means trainers. It was expressed with the word mukallibīn because the majority of their hunting was by dogs” (Zād al-Masīr 2/292).
Even if they managed this in some cases, such as when they asserted the prohibition of all parts of the pig by including them in the verse:
فَإِنَّهُ رِجْسٌ
“For indeed it is filth” (al-Anʿām: 145),
and they returned the pronoun to the possessed instead of the possessive, yet in many issues they cannot manage this, and they are forced into qiyās, or to say things none of those before them had said.
No faqīh is known to have said regarding the hadith when the Prophet ﷺ was asked about a mouse that fell into clarified butter, he said: “Remove it and what is around it, and eat the rest” (al-Bukhārī 2106, Muslim 1930): that this ruling is specific to clarified butter alone, excluding other oils and liquids. This is something that the Companions and the Tābiʿūn and the imams of fatwā would never differentiate, between clarified butter and oil, or between a mouse and a cat in this ruling.
Likewise the prohibition of selling fresh dates for dried dates, no scholar who understands Allah and His Messenger would differentiate between that and selling grapes for raisins.
Also, Allah said about the thrice-divorced woman:
فَإِن طَلَّقَهَا فَلَا تَحِلُّ لَهُ مِن بَعْدُ حَتَّى تَنكِحَ زَوْجًا غَيْرَهُ فَإِن طَلَّقَهَا فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا أَن يَتَرَاجَعَا
“If he divorces her, she is not lawful for him afterwards until she marries another husband. If he divorces her, then there is no blame upon the two of them if they return to each other” (al-Baqara: 230).
This means if the second husband divorces her, there is no blame upon her and her first husband to return, meaning with a new contract. This is not specific to the case where the second husband divorces her, but whenever they separate by death, or khulʿ (divorce for compensation), or annulment, or divorce, she becomes lawful to the first husband again by qiyās.
This prohibition is not limited to eating and drinking, but covers all forms of use, such as washing with them, doing wuḍūʾ with them, applying oil with them, or using kuḥl from them. No scholar has doubted this.
Also, the Prophet ﷺ prohibited the muḥrim (person in iḥrām) from wearing the shirt, trousers, turban, and leather socks. This is not limited to these specific items, but includes other forms such as the ḥubbāb, the dalūq, quilted clothing, cloaks, qabāʾ, and other known garments, and also the head coverings such as the cap, the kufiyya, the kulūna, the ṭaylasān, the qalansuwa, socks, overshoes, high boots, and loincloths.
If he were to take with him a cloth that cleans better than stones, or cotton, or wool, or bricks, or anything similar, it is permissible, because the Sharīʿa only intended removal and cleanliness. So whatever achieves that better is more deserving to be permitted.
Likewise his prohibition that a man sells over the sale of his brother or proposes over his proposal (al-Bukhārī 2140, Muslim 1413). The corruption prohibited in sale and proposal is present also in ijārah (leasing), so it is also prohibited there.
And His saying regarding tayammum:
وَإِن كُنتُمْ جُنُبًا فَاطَّهَّرُوا وَإِن كُنتُم مَّرْضَى أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ أَوْ جَاءَ أَحَدٌ مِّنكُم مِّنَ الْغَائِطِ أَوْ لَامَسْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ فَلَمْ تَجِدُوا مَاءً فَتَيَمَّمُوا صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا
“If you are in a state of janāba, then purify yourselves. If you are ill or on a journey, or one of you comes from relieving himself, or you have touched women, and you cannot find water, then do tayammum with clean earth” (al-Māʾida: 6).
The scholars included under this all types of minor impurities by qiyās, even though the verse only mentions relieving oneself and touching women. They also included nocturnal emission, one who finds the price of water, one who fears death for himself or his animals from thirst, and one who fears illness from cold water.
Also His saying:
وَإِن كُنتُمْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ وَلَمْ تَجِدُوا كَاتِبًا فَرِهَانٌ مَّقْبُوضَةٌ
“If you are on a journey and cannot find a scribe, then a pledge in hand” (al-Baqara: 283).
The umma applied this ruling to pledges in residence, and with the presence of a scribe, by qiyās. For the Prophet ﷺ pledged his armour in Madina to a Jew in exchange for barley (al-Bukhārī 2509).
Also the case when Samura ibn Jundub sold wine of the dhimmīs and took the ʿushūr from them. When this reached ʿUmar, he said: “May Allah fight Samura. Did he not know that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Allah cursed the Jews. Fat was forbidden for them, so they melted it, sold it, and ate its price’” (Muslim 1581). This is pure qiyās from ʿUmar (d. 23 AH), since the prohibition of fat for the Jews is like the prohibition of wine for the Muslims, so its price is forbidden like the price of the fat.
Also the Companions gave the slave half the rulings of the free man in marriage, divorce, and waiting period, by qiyās upon the verse:
فَعَلَيْهِنَّ نِصْفُ مَا عَلَى الْمُحْصَنَاتِ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ
“Then upon them is half of what is upon the free women of punishment” (al-Nisāʾ: 25).
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (d. 23 AH) said: “The slave marries two women and divorces two” (al-Bukhārī 2236, Muslim 1581). And ʿAlī (d. 40 AH) said: “The waiting period of the slave woman is two menstruations, and if she does not menstruate then a month and a half.” The Companions divided the rulings by qiyās upon the division Allah made in the ḥadd punishment.
And they gave leadership to Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (d. 13 AH) in the khilāfa by saying: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was pleased with him for our dīn, so should we not be pleased with him for our dunyā?” So they made qiyās of the greater imāma upon the imāma of ṣalāh.
They also agreed on writing the muṣḥaf and compiling the Qurʾān in it (al-Bukhārī 4986), and agreed to gather the people on one muṣḥaf, one arrangement, and one ḥarf (al-Bukhārī 4987).
ʿUmar and ʿAlī forbade selling ummahāt al-awlād by their ijtihād. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq equalised between people in stipends by his ijtihād, while ʿUmar preferred the people of Badr by his ijtihād.
ʿUmar added the ḥadd of drinking to the ḥadd of slander by his ijtihād and the Companions approved him. ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (d. 35 AH) gave inheritance to a thrice-divorced woman in the illness of death by his ijtihād and the Companions agreed. Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68 AH) said regarding the prohibition of selling food before taking possession: “I think everything is like food.”
ʿUmar and Zayd gave the mother one third of what remains in the case of a husband and two parents, and wife and two parents, by qiyās upon the case where there is no spouse, where the father takes double the mother.
This is among the most beautiful examples of qiyās, since the principle in inheritance is that the male and female in the same level either the male takes double like children and paternal siblings, or they are equal like maternal siblings. But that the female takes double what the male takes, with equality in degree, is unknown in Sharīʿa.
They also applied the principle of ʿawl (proportional reduction) in inheritance by qiyās upon dividing debts of a bankrupt among creditors when the wealth is insufficient. The Prophet ﷺ said to the creditors: “Take what you find, you have nothing else” (Muslim 1556). This is pure justice, unlike depriving some heirs completely and giving others full share.
Iʿlām al-Muwaqqiʿīn ʿan Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn By Imām Ibn Qayyim (1/410-422)
